Taking life as it rolls

Western 100 driver with paraplegia ranks No. 1 in Wyoming

Western 100 driver with paraplegia ranks No. 1 in Wyoming

September 15, 2007|By Russ Keen, American News Writer

Travis Poll uses a wheelchair, but he lives in the fast lane - a very fast lane. The Wyoming stock-car racer is one of hundreds of drivers zooming around the Brown County Speedway this week at the four-day Western 100 that concludes at 6 tonight. Flipping a four-wheeler 11 years ago at age 15 while climbing a hill rendered Poll partially paralyzed. But in some ways the accident improved his life, said the 26-year-old, because surviving the ordeal convinced him he's around for a reason. “So I'm living life to the fullest, doing what I love,” Poll of Green River, Wyo., said Friday afternoon amid all the hubbub at a temporary village of race cars, campers, drivers and their followers that has sprung up around the Aberdeen speedway. Racing is a relatively new love, acquired when he started watching races after his accident and realizing “I could do that,” he said. Before the accident, he had no interest in the sport. Politically incorrect nickname: Now, with only six years of racing and only three years of Super Stock racing under his belt, Poll recently claimed the title of Wyoming's 2007 Super Stock state champion. He took second place in 2006, when that year's state champ dubbed Poll “Captain Cripple” at a party after a race. Revelers gasped to think the 2006 champ would call the runner-up a cripple, said Terry Poll, Travis' father. But Travis laughed out loud and adopted the nickname now painted in a niche on the driver's side of his race car, No. 79. The passenger side sports these words: “Thanks, Mom.” His mother, Jeaneene Poll, bought the car but doesn't enjoy watching Travis race, he said. The car features a Dave Adams 355-cubic-inch V-8 engine that, like all super-stock race cars, burns 110-octane gasoline, Travis said. It has an Affordable Chassis that features a hand clutch because Travis has use of his hands. He has partial use of his left foot, which he uses to brake and accelerate. The Western 100 this week marks the first time Travis has raced outside Wyoming and the first he has competed against what racers call Eastern drivers - which means any driver not from the West. The competition in Aberdeen is intense, he said. The myth is that Eastern drivers are faster, Travis said. “So far, that's proving to be true,” he said with a laugh because as of Friday afternoon he had not been among the top finishers in his races. On Thursday night, he blew a 50-cent fuse that knocked him out of the race. He's confident the myth can be debunked, however, he said. Fighter: Though the four-wheeler accident left him seriously injured, Travis said he feels no fear of getting hurt while out on a race track. There's little time to experience any emotion during a race, he said, except maybe for a flash of anger over something stupid he or another driver did. Terry said that, much to his dismay, his son still enjoys driving a four-wheeler. Travis is a fighter who never experienced depression after the accident, his father said. “He handled it better than his mother and I did,” Terry said. “He told me, 'Dad, my life has changed, but it isn't over.'”